Today on MASTERS OF HORROR we have Gary Kruse. Gary is a multi-genre writer of flash fiction, short stories and novels. He lives with his family in Hornchurch on the Essex/London border.
He began writing as a teenager after seeing the Craft in the cinema and wondering what would happen if the coven of witches from the Craft came face to face with the Lost Boys (the vampires, not Peter Pan's crew!).
His work has appeared online and in print anthologies and his short story "Mirror Mirror" was shortlisted in the WriteHive 2021 Horror competition, and subsequently featured in the "Duplicitous" anthology.
His short story "Hope in the Dark" won first place in the November 2021 edition of the Writers' Forum Short Story competition.
His debut novel “Badlands” is an Amazon bestseller. His new novel, Bleak Waters, is available now.
Let’s get to meet this amazingly talented writer, Gary Kruse!
Tell me a little about yourself.
I grew up on a council estate in Dagenham in East London. The street I lived in had some pretty nasty characters, and the police were present most weekends. There were drug dealers selling gear on the street corners, gang fights and someone got stabbed just outside my house and police found the knife in the bush of the house opposite. I moved out in 2001 and now live in Hornchurch, a few miles away. It’s right on the Essex/London borders with open fields only a short walk away, but still close enough to London to catch the train up town. I used to commute to my day job in London, but have been working more locally for the past year or so. I’m a membership manager for a local charity but I’ve done loads of jobs over the years including retail loss prevention and for a few years (until the body gave out) I was a professional tennis coach.
Why write horror? What is it about writing terrifying scenes that excites you?
I was drawn to horror because it seemed to be the only genre of fiction that featured settings similar to those I knew. I started reading James Herbert and Shaun Hutson and their books often having working class or small town settings which reflected the world I knew. And I know from experience the human monsters that live in those worlds (see question one!) so there’s probably an element of trying to understand the real evil in the world through fictional evil. I actually started writing after seeing the Craft in the cinema and wondering what would happen if the coven clashed with the vampires from The Lost Boys, and that sparked a general interest in witchcraft and vampires that has fed into my work off and on over the years.
Describe as best you can the first or most significant success you’ve had in your writing career.
My most significant writing success was the publication of my debut novel, Badlands. It’s more a dark thriller than an out and out horror, but there’s spooky elements woven through it, and there is a psychotic assassin called Raven who hides behind a mask and specialises in brutality. (There’s one scene that still makes me wince. And I wrote it!) It’s set in Cornwall and draws heavily on Cornwall’s smuggling past and also touches on the conflict between tourists and the local residents. I took a semi-hiatus from writing from around 2009 after I lost my day-job and had to retrain and didn’t come back to it properly until after completing my degree. I started writing it in 2019, and it was published in January 2022. Since then it’s become an Amazon Bestseller and was named Book of the Month on the Read Freely website in September 2022. Since then, my second book, Bleak Waters has been published. Bleak Waters takes the spooky elements of Badlands and really ramps them up, adding witchcraft and an unsolved disappearance into the mix.
What’s the scariest book you’ve read? And why?
Amityville Horror. Scared the absolute crap out me when I read it (I was about 15 at the time). The film was scary enough, but the book was terrifying. I think the fact that it was sold as being based on a true story (although I believe that’s since been debunked) made it all the scarier because it felt like it could actually happen to me.
What are you working on now?
I’ve just finished the first draft of my new novel, Trinity. After Badlands was released, I started thinking again about the first book I ever wrote which was the Craft vs Lost Boys mash up back in 1997. And I really wanted to revisit that idea of witchcraft and vampirism, but with the benefit of twenty-plus years writing experience. So I started note-taking, and Trinity is now a witchcraft, vampire and pagan horror tale. It’s the story of Isis, a mother who turned her back on her family’s witchcraft heritage after the death of her best friend. Estranged from her own mother, Isis has now lost everything and with her daughter, Maeve, has to return to her mother’s home. Brigid, Isis’s mother, is a witch who, when she was Maeve’s age, fought and imprisoned a vampiric horror from the Neolithic. Now, the horror has been released and is hunting Brigid down. To survive Isis will have to overcome her fears and embrace her witchy heritage before the horror consumes everyone she loves.
Where can we find you?
BONUS! To get a sneak peek at Gary’s new short story in the world of Trinity called “Curse of the Ancient” click HERE!
Gary Kruse is definitely a writer to watch and I want to thank him for taking the time to share with us today. Check out just a couple of the reviews he has received for Badlands on Amazon.
“Kruse has put together a compelling, well thought out crime novel. Believable characters with nefarious motives make this one a page turner from start to finish.” -Amazon Reviewer for Badlands
“The plot is intricate and well crafted, keeping you guessing until the very end. As questions are answered, more appear, and danger is everywhere. No one and nothing is as it seems. Yet, everything fits into place in the end.” -Amazon Reviewer for Badlands
The man can write, and could probably give you a few pointers on your tennis game as well! So do yourself a favour and check out BADLANDS and Gary’s newest book BLEAK WATERS.
I love learning about the lives of fellow horror writers. It’s amazing to me how each one of us has a vastly different background. Through these interviews I have met authors from around the globe and each one is special. Each one is unique. But we all share the same passion for writing.
I hope you take a minute and check out the works put forward by these incredibly talented indie writers and hopefully find your new favourite author in the process!
Thanks again to Gary Kruse for letting us peek behind the curtain on the life of an amazing talent!
If you are a horror writer who would like to be featured on MASTERS OF HORROR for some free publicity just click the link below, answer the 5 Questions as fully and completely as possible and soon, you too, will be a MASTER OF HORROR!